The Irish standard., 1887-07-16
IN SCOTLAND YARD.
The Exclusive Assortment OF Photographs
Kept in London's Rosue's Gallery.

Kept in London's ROSue's Gallery.
While at the chief Office of her
Majesty's criminal investigation de-
partlnent at Scotland Yard, Parlia-
n1ent street, recently, I was shown
what 1 regard as the most extraordi-
nary book in the world, a book which
has never been published and never
will be published. Its sanctity is so
strictly preserved that even when the
authorities want to lot a man see some-
thing in it, they only show him the
one page which will enable him to dis
cover whether the man described on it
is the man against whom he has COM
plant to make. But by a combination
OF good luck on one side and good ma
ture on the other it was the present
writer's privilege to examine the rec
ord during the whole of an afternoon
when he was waiting at the office to
identify gentleman from Philadel-
phia-
This book is the English substitute
for the "rogues' gallery at police
headquarters in New York. 1t is not,
perhaps, as useful an arrangement as
that Of the tinged frames in Mulberry
street, for the inquirer is only shown
few such photographs as the police be-
]ieye will be likely to be useful in en-
abling him to identify the man he is
after. But, on the whole, it is, per.
haps. q better plan, for the huge num-
Der Of ugly faces crowded together in
the 'rogues' gallery confuse the eye
SO much shat it is not at all uncommon
for a man to select half dozen widely
different faces. one after the other, az
that of his despoiler, However this
may be- the huge album III London is
much more Interesting inasmuch as
each photograph is pasted on a broad
page on and around the picture, and
on the reverse Of the sheet is written,
in the smallest possible hand, de-
tailed history OF the subject of the pho
tograph, and concise account Of bis
methods, SIS well as his achievements
Strange rs the statement may seem,
the public know nothing of the work Of
3 really clover crook, and the police
themselves know very little more
The explanation Of this ignorance is q
very simple one. A crook whose
methods are exposed is second~rate
crook. If he let's the light OF day
strike his operations, he is no more "a
drst-rate crook than G card sharper
who is detected can really be called s.
good hand at jumping the cut. But
q private detective, or 'confdential
inq,liring agent" as he is more
grandiloquently styled in England, il
he has had access to the information
possessed by the police, and he has had
wide experience in compromises,
really does get at q good deal OF curl
Gus knowledge.
An ':artist, as for convenience an
adroit crook may be called to distin-
guish him from the blunderers who
allow themselves to be known to the
police, requires two conditions in q
plant In the first place there must
be something big to get away with; in
the second place the attendant circun-
stances must be such that the man who
is robbed vii! be more than willing 10
cry quits aid keep his mouth shut in
consideration Of getting oack part of
the money. Now this is, i'll statutory
language, ''compounding felony"
been robbed and who is only getting
back half his loss does not want to run
the risk Of being prosecuted in addition
TO the calamity of being done out Of his
Sc he does not go to the police
at all, and they, therefore, only know
about the crooks who are "chumps''
enough not to keep to the windward Of
the cold, stale smell of q Jail by always
out the feasibility OF s. COM
promise before they |'nake the rifle"
There are in London and in every
large European city class Of private
detectives who make profession of
arranging these compromises, - who
arc neither more nor less than 's1nid-
dlcmen'' between the public and the
classes--in g word. crooks
brokers. The vocation is, Of course.
open to the grave objection that its
practice is essentially a continual
breaking of the law, and yet, inasmuch
as it enables the victim to get back at
any rate q part Of their money, there
is something to be said Oh behalf OF
these brokers. They know the crooks,
and the crooks know and trust them.
# a crook will make a fair deal and
let the man he has played get back a
stair whack of the stuff" less, Of
course, the agents commission, the
broker will never round on the crook.
No money could hire him to do 1t, for
if he were once known to have be-
trayed one OF his crooked clients in this
way he would be of no further use to
his honest clients, and would lose his
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